


Losing the Battle and the War

by Mars_McKie



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Fluff, Fluff and Humor, Tickle Fights, Tickling
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-25
Updated: 2018-07-25
Packaged: 2019-06-16 07:15:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,232
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15431817
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mars_McKie/pseuds/Mars_McKie
Summary: As kids, Noct discovers something about Ignis that brings them both joy. As teens, Noct exploits it without mercy.





	Losing the Battle and the War

**Author's Note:**

  * For [yopumpkinhead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yopumpkinhead/gifts).
  * Inspired by [A Laughing Matter](https://archiveofourown.org/works/13198521) by [yopumpkinhead](https://archiveofourown.org/users/yopumpkinhead/pseuds/yopumpkinhead). 



> This was written as a response to one of my favourite FFXV fanfics - A Laughing Matter by yopumpkinhead.  
> This story works as a prequel or as a stand-alone piece, but go check out their story as I love it so much!

“Hey, Iggy- gimme your hand!”

A nine-and-a-half-year-old Ignis looked up from his book, pencil in hand, to where Noctis was sat next to him at the table. It was so easy for him to see the seven-year-old Noctis -with his round face and childish manners- like a little brother rather than as the young Prince that he was helping to educate to one day be king. Noct grinned and beckoned for Ignis’ hand eagerly with large eyes.

“Huh? What do you want my hand for?” Ignis asked, pulling it away instinctively.

“I want to show you something- my dad used to do it with me.”

 _Something that Noct used to do with King Regis?_ Curiosity piqued, Ignis extended his left hand. Noct grabbed his wrist and turned it so that his palm was face up, and drew circles around it with his finger.

“Round and round the garden, like a teddy bear,” Noct sang as his finger sailed around its path. “One step-” his finger hopped onto Ignis’ forearm. “Two step-” his finger hopped up to Ignis’ upper arm. “And tickily under there!”

Noct plunged his hand into Ignis’ armpit and wriggled his fingers. Ignis shrieked at the unexpected sensation and unintentionally kicked his chair to the floor as he leapt to get away.

“What was that for?” Ignis flared, but not really knowing how to react. He was trying to keep his face stern despite the electric feeling running through his arm and down his side.

Noct’s face fell. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to make you angry, Ignis.”

Guilt swept over him at the sight of Noct’s sincere expression. “I’m not angry, I-”

“Did your parents never do that with you?”

Ignis swallowed hard at the question. In the time that he had known them his parents had never been the type for shows of affection.

“Well, no,” he said, straightening his glasses.

“Oh, sorry,” Noct muttered, his head downcast. “I promise I won’t do it again.”

Ignis fidgeted with his sleeve. The feeling hadn’t been entirely unpleasant. “Mm, well, maybe just a little?” He mumbled.

Noct looked up and beamed. “Okay!” He leapt after Ignis and his hands sprung to Ignis’ sides, wriggling and pinching up and down them and causing Ignis to back away laughing.

Over the coming weeks, Noctis managed to spring many a tickle attack on Ignis, catching his royal retainer unaware so that eventually all he needed to do was wiggle his fingers in the air and Ignis would flinch and giggle nervously. That was, until Noct did so at an important ceremony and Ignis jumped nearly a foot in the air in front of King Regis. The King merely laughed at their antics, but Ignis was so embarrassed that he snapped at Noct after the ceremony, shouting at him for making him look stupid.

Both of them felt so bad after the incident that neither of them spoke about it again.

*

An eighteen-year-old Ignis opened the door to Noct’s city apartment, his keys in one hand and a bulging bag of groceries in the other. The apartment looked much neater after Ignis’ cleaning session earlier that afternoon; the surfaces wiped, the floors vacuumed, and the smelly bags of rubbish put out ready to collect.

A pair of shoes that had been kicked haphazardly by the front door suggested the Prince was home. Ignis slipped his own shoes off (setting them along with Noct’s shoes in a neater position than they had been left in) and made his way through to the kitchen area. He set the groceries on the counter next to a bowl of grilled veggies that he had prepared before he went shopping; the veggies had been the only thing left in the cupboards that he could turn into a meal, so that was what he had made for the Prince’s dinner.

Scowling at the untouched vegetables Ignis shrugged off his jacket, picked up the bowl and strode down the hallway to Noct’s room. He pushed open the door to find the Prince sat on the floor with a games controller in his hands and a cable sweet dangling from his mouth, the packet beside him confirming Ignis’ suspicions that Noct had a secret supply for the meals when Ignis refused to prepare anything but veggies.

On seeing Ignis in the doorway, Noct jumped and -in one swift movement- hastily stuffed the sweet into his mouth and shoved the packet under his bed in the hope that Ignis hadn’t seen.

“You didn’t eat the dinner I made for you,” Ignis stated with all of the authority he could muster.

“I oo no gh-” Noct attempted to say around his mouthful. He flushed and swallowed hard.

“Could you please explain to me-” Ignis continued. “-How I am supposed to prepare you for the duties of ruling a kingdom if you die of scurvy from not eating your vegetables?”

“You’re being dramatic, Iggy.”

“These veggies were the only thing left in your cupboards which were still edible,” Ignis said, doubling down on his glare as he set the bowl down on Noct’s bed. “Everything else had expired.”

“I was gonna ask you to go grocery shopping,” Noct mumbled.

“I’ve already been.”

“Great! You can cook pizza then?” Noct grabbed up his controller with an air of the conversation being finished.

A vein pulsed in Ignis’ temple. Noct could be impossible at times. Ignis wondered at the possibility of putting the vegetables on a pizza, but the dough would take time to make- time which the advisor had allotted elsewhere to more important issues. The noise of the video game drew his attention back from the thought of reorganising his schedule to the Prince sat on the floor in the semi-darkness.

Ignis huffed. “You can at least turn the light on, so you’re not damaging your eyes.”

“You mean like you, specs?”

Frowning at the dig to his glasses, Ignis flipped the light switch on. Nothing happened. He flipped it off. Again, nothing.

“Yeah, that light’s been out for like three days now.”

Ignis pushed his glasses up to pinch the bridge of his nose. _When had the Prince become such a difficult teenager?_ “If you’d be so kind as to fetch me a bulb from the cupboard, I’ll change it now.”

Noct groaned as he stood up, bumping shoulders with Ignis on his way out.

Ignis considered the light. The bulb was surrounded by a modern lampshade, spherical with a hole in the bottom. Easy enough to fit his hand into.

He reached up with a hand into the hole and grabbed the bulb. The metal pins were proving stiff so he reached up with his other arm and grasped the bulb with both hands, twisting until it dropped into his palms. He smiled for a fraction of a second until he realised that the bulb was now acting like a stopper, making him unable to retract his wrists from the lampshade.

Ignis swore under his breath, trying to twist his hands, when Noct walked back in.

“I found the bulbs, is this the right-” Noct stopped on seeing Ignis stood there, a scowl fixed on his face. His eyes travelled upwards to take in his hands and he beamed. “Iggy, are you stuck?”

“No, I’m absolutely fine, thank you!” Ignis said, tugging his wrists but getting nowhere.

“Are you sure?”

Ignis growled. “Fine! Yes, I’m stuck!”

Noct doubled over with laughter. Had Ignis been in a better mood he would have noted that was the first time he’d heard Noct belly-laugh like that in years, but he wasn’t in the mood for it.

“It’s not that funny,” Ignis stated as he threw back his head, trying to shift his fringe from his face without dislodging his glasses.

“It’s hilarious!” Noct gasped, wiping away tears from his eyes.

“There’s some butter in the shopping bag on the counter.”

“Yep, one minute...” Ignis’ mood was not improved as Noct took out his phone and photographed him trapped from as many angles as possible. Ignis had no doubt those images would get sent to Prompto and Gladio and anyone else that Noct happened to have in his contacts. By the next morning the whole of the Crownsguard and Kingsglaive would probably have seen his current predicament.

“When you’re quite ready,” he huffed after a moment, his ears burning red.

“Yeah, yeah,” Noct grinned, poking Ignis in the side as he passed. Ignis’ whole body hopped at the touch and Noct paused. Confusion gave way to realisation then to sadistic joy. He slowly raised his hand and wiggled his fingers in the air. Ignis could only back away a single step in his position and Noct easily covered the distance between them, his smile growing ever wider.

“No, Noct, no- eep!” Ignis protested then dissolved into panicked giggles as Noct poked up and down his sides.

“Man, Iggy, I forgot you were ticklish!” Noct grinned. His hands scribbled up and down Ignis’ sides, pinching and teasing his skin through the shirt.

“Stop it Noct!” Ignis shrieked indignantly, yelping as Noct found a particularly ticklish spot.

“Nah, this is too much fun!”

Noct took his sweet time with Ignis, his hands exploring and sussing out the spots that produced the best effects. Everywhere seemed good with the touch-starved advisor, though Noct had particular success with certain sweet spots.

For his part, Ignis tried to put up as much of a fight as he could in his position, kicking out at his torturer, but Noct managed to easily warp through his shoddy defence and assault Ignis from all angles at breakneck speed. Had they been in training Ignis might have praised Noct for his ability, but he was in no position to truly appreciate it. With one particularly poorly aimed kick, Noct managed to grab Ignis’ socked foot and scratched at his arch, causing Ignis to howl with laughter and curse the strength of the fixture holding him upright.

When it seemed Noct’s sadistic side had been satisfied and Ignis was completely red in the face, Noct finally relented and fetched the butter from the kitchen. It took a minute for Ignis to work his wrists free from the lampshade, during which time Noct delivered a few more pokes to his ribs, before his left wrist was free then the right, bringing the old bulb down with it.

“I would thank you for getting me free eventually,” Ignis glared, using a discarded towel to wipe the greasy remnants from his wrist before dropping it in the laundry basket. “Though your manner of doing so makes me think you should be eating veggies for a month-”

“Oh no you don’t!” Noct said, tackling Ignis around the waist and pushing him down onto the bed. Momentarily winded, Ignis wasn’t prepared for Noct clamouring on top of him, pinning one wrist down with his knee, and going for Ignis’ most ticklish spots with a now expert precision.

“ _Gaaaahhhh_!” Ignis shrieked. His body was already sensitive from Noct’s previous prodding, and the extended torture set his nerves screaming.

Just because Ignis now had the ability to fight back didn’t mean he was able to do so with any effectiveness. He tried to grab at Noct with his free hand, but Noct merely grabbed it and pulled it up so he could get to his armpits. He found a spot that made Ignis’ whole body jerk and tapped it over and over again punishingly, but despite his thrashing Noct stayed put. _When had the Prince become so strong?_ Ignis kicked out helplessly and in his struggle the bowl of grilled veggies was knocked to the floor.

Ignis squirmed with little effect while Noct was unrelenting in his assault. He poked Ignis’ ribs, pinched his sides, and went for gold as he wriggled his fingers across his advisor’s stomach. Tears streamed from behind Ignis’ glasses and he screamed with reckless laughter as his whole world was reduced to Noct’s grinning face and wandering fingers.

After a few more minutes of fruitless struggling and pleas for mercy that went ignored, Ignis was completely undone.

“I yield! I yield!” He managed to shout around his giggles, weak with breathlessness.

“No yielding- you know what I want to hear!” Noct smirked, once again going for the spot under Ignis’ armpit.

“ _AHHHHH! Fine!_ I’ll make pizza!”

Finally satisfied, Noct released his wrists and rolled off of Ignis. Despite being free, Ignis was too weak to move, instead lying where he had been left and trying to get his traitorous body back under control. His body twitched as the ghosts of ticklish spasms shot through him and he was unable to get the smile off of his tear-stained face.

“Come on, specs! Pizza!” Noct said gleefully, prodding Ignis’ leg as he stood and left the room.

Ignis knew in that moment he had lost both that battle and all future battles to get Noct to eat properly, if every time he pressed the issue Noct was able to undo him like this. He vaguely wondered how King Regis would react if he knew his son’s royal retainer had failed his duties in such a manner. His whole body shuddered and he crossed his arms across himself, giggling lightly. Somehow, he didn’t think this was what the King had in mind when he’d asked Ignis to be Noct’s friend and brother.


End file.
